The stories behind the buildings, statues and other points of interest that make Manhattan fascinating.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

The 1892 Christ Church Rectory -- No. 213 West 71st Street

The population of the newly developed Upper West Side—called
by some a “new city”—needed schools, fire and police stations, and churches by
the 1890s.Among the first of the
churches to move north was the Protestant Episcopal Christ Church.

Organized in 1793 it had stood at Fifth Avenue and 39th
Street for many years before erecting what The New York Times called a “beautiful”
structure on the Boulevard (later renamed Broadway) and 71st Street.The newspaper noted in 1895 “it has been
identified prominently with the religious movements of the city.”

Now relocated, the church needed a parsonage for its rector,
the Rev. Jacob S. Shipman.Alfred
Abraham and his wife, Adelaide, and daughter, Theresa, had lived in the
four-story brownstone home at No. 213 West 71st Street for only three years.But its situation directly behind Christ Church
made it a perfect choice.

The church purchased the relatively-new rowhouse, demolished
it, and commissioned architects Rose & Stone to design a new
residence.Rev. Shipman had been rector
of Christ Church since 1877 and, like other pastors of fashionable churches, he
lived in grand style.The new house would
reflect the social station that accompanied his ecclesiastical position.

Completed in 1892, the Shipman house exerted its
individuality on a block of identical brownstone-fronted homes.Rose & Stone clad the four-story
structure in beige brick trimmed in brownstone and terra cotta.Taking advantage of the church lot, the
architects were able to create two exposed facades; an advantage providing
extra sunlight available normally only on corner lots.The Renaissance Revival design featured
two-story faceted bays at the corner which sprouted balconies at the third
floor; and a decorative terra cotta cornice.But perhaps stealing the show was the robust Renaissance-style hood over
the entrance.

Moving into No. 213 with the minister was his wife, Anne
Louisa; were their last unmarried daughter Laura; and Herbert Shipman (who was, not
coincidentally, Assistant Minister of Christ Church).The other Shipman children, two sons and two
daughters, had already married.

In 1901 the aging Rev. Jacob S. Shipman was “stricken with paralysis,”
according to The New York Times; most likely the result of a serious
stroke.On January 15 the newspaper
noted that he “has since been unable to attend to his pastoral duties.”Shipman’s title was changed to “rector
emeritus” and he and his family continued to live on in the house behind the
church while services were handled by various ministers.Herbert had moved on by now, taking the
position of Chaplain at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

On May 27, 1902 Anne Louise Shipman visited her daughter,
Mrs. William H. Burr, at her home nearby at No. 151 West 74th
Street.While there she suddenly
suffered what doctors diagnosed as “neuralgia of the heart.”Today it would be deemed a massive heart
attack.She died almost immediately.

Laura’s wedding to Chicagoan Henry Mascarene Hubbard had
already been planned for a month later.No doubt after serious discussion among the family, the ceremony went
on.Herbert Shipman came down from West
Point to perform the ceremony in their father’s church.The New York Times announced “It will be
extremely quiet, owing to the recent death of Mrs. Shipman, and only a few near
relatives will be present.”

With Anne Louise dead and Louise moving to Chicago, the
invalid Jacob Shipman could not continue even as titular head of Christ
Church.On Laura’s wedding day,
Wednesday, June 25, 1902, the vestrymen elected the Rev. George Alexander
Strong of Brockton, Massachusetts as the new rector.Like the Shipmans, the Strong family enjoyed
a privileged lifestyle.The New York
Times, in announcing the appointment, mentioned “He will spend the Summer at
North Haven, where he has had a cottage for some years.”

The well-respected clergyman had studied at Adams Academy,
Amherst College, the University of Leipzig, and the Episcopal Divinity School
in Cambridge.He had served as assistant
pastor of old St. Paul’s in Boston, and rector of St Paul’s in Malden, Massachusetts,
and of St. Paul’s in Brockton, Massachusetts.

Mrs. Strong threw herself into women’s issues upon arriving
in New York.She immediately became
active in the Women’s Municipal League; and when the group declared “active war
on Tammany” at a meeting on October 7, 1903, she offered the rectory to
help.A “depot” was established in the
house for the dissemination of “literature of all kinds” for the politically-active
women.

In the meantime, her husband seems to have been less
political.That same summer he was made
a member of the New York Yacht Club.

Following the devastating San Francisco earthquake on April
18, 1906 and the accompanying fire, troops from New York City went west to assist
in recovery efforts.On Sunday May 13
the First Company, Signal Corps, of the New York National Guard filed into
Christ Church for services.Rev. Strong
commended the men in his sermon, saying “the country should be proud of the
American soldier for the work done at San Francisco.”

In 1908 Rev. George Strong experimented with a new concept:
Christian Psychology.Dr. S. Weir
Mitchell had proposed curing nervous disorders by “the combining of the two
greatest powers of modern times—real religion and genuine science—in order to
bring them to bear on a person at one and the same time.”

The practice had already been embraced by Boston minister Rev. Dr. Elwood
Worcester of Emmanuel Episcopal Church. He said of the cure “The disorders we
treat include neurasthenia, hysteria, psychasthenia, mild melancholia, fixed
ideas, and phobias.

“An important part has been the treatment of alcoholism both
in men and women.We have found a method
that goes far deeper than those the Church has hitherto employed…It gives
people the peace of mind and strength required to fight life’s battles and
resist temptations.”

Strong was understandably cautious.The Times explained “The experiment at Christ
Church does not mean…that this Episcopal parish has committed itself to the new
idea, much less that it is to be made permanently at home there.”Rev. Strong gave the experiment one week—the
third week in Lent.

Since nothing was again heard of Christian Psychology at
Christ Church, one might assume that the experiment failed; or that the church
was low in alcoholics or depressed parishioners.

The 71st Street rectory bustled with preparations
for the wedding of the Strongs’ daughter, Susan Sturgis Strong, in the spring of 1913.On the afternoon of Wednesday May 14 Susan
gave a luncheon in the house for her bridal attendants.The next afternoon, following her wedding
to George Lindsley Burr, it was the scene of the reception.

After serving Christ Church for 11 years, Rev. George
Alexander Strong submitted his resignation in June 1913.The Church attributed his resignation to ill
health.“He has gone with his family to
North Haven, Me.” said the announcement.Like Rev. Jacob Shipman, Strong remained in the 71st Street
rectory, at least through 1915.

The rectory can been seen directly behind the now-demolished Christ Episcopal Church. photo from the collection of The Episcopal Diocese of New York Archives

Nearly two decades earlier, in 1897, St. Stephen’s Episcopal
Church had followed the lead of Christ Church and moved uptown from 46th
Street.The trustees of Christ Church
were defiantly opposed to the sale of property to St. Stephen’s just two blocks
away from their own structure.The New
York Times had explained “It is contended that there is not room in that
district for two churches of the same type of churchmanship.”

The bickering between the two parishes had grown so strained
that in 1905 Christ Church sued St. Stephen’s for infringing on parish
boundaries.The suit was dismissed and
the two churches continued in their tense coexistence.

Now, the competition over parishioners and the economic troubles
caused by the Great Depression were most likely responsible for Christ Church's
selling its costly rectory in 1935.The
once-grand home was illegally leased as furnished rooms and in 1936 received a “multiple
dwelling violation.”

In 1947 the house was converted to a private school with the
three top stories used as dormitory bedrooms.Six years later the school was gone and the house was operated as “furnished
rooms” again.And in 1984 it received
its final renovation into apartments.

Sadly, the former rectory has lost its stoop, the doorway
converted to a French door leading nowhere and the entrance moved to the basement
level.The ornamentation of the
brownstone lintels has been shaved flat and the original railings of the third
floor balconies have been replaced with industrial-type fencing.But despite the regrettable abuse, the old
house still stands out among its peers; hinting at the refined lifestyles of
its earliest residents.